I just tried it out on my Chromecast with my Galaxy S5, and it seemed to work quite well. It seemed to have very little lag. It is great for showing photos and videos from your phone. I also used it to play a round of Star Realms (a card game), and it was great for that since it can sometimes be difficult to see the card art and tiny text on my phone. Some of the card animations were a little janky/stuttery, however. I am on a 801.11g network, so maybe they would have been a bit smoother on a faster LAN. Video playback was smooth, however. I will experiment with some more games tomorrow.

BTW I had to manually install the latest version of the Chromecast app to get it to work. I guess it isn't yet on the play store.

Screen-casting to Chromecast is also available on Moto X with the latest 1.7.4 APK with a minor hack -- Google Play Services need to be downgraded back to the factory version. This, however, breaks a lot of apps.

I'm interested in picking up a Chromecast, but I'm out of HDMI ports. Can anyone recommend an HDMI switcher? It can't do automatic switching, since that doesn't work well with always-on devices, and it needs to be compatible with a Harmony remote.

I'm interested in picking up a Chromecast, but I'm out of HDMI ports. Can anyone recommend an HDMI switcher? It can't do automatic switching, since that doesn't work well with always-on devices, and it needs to be compatible with a Harmony remote.

This Kinivo switch works with my Harmony. The LED's are a bit bright, though.

I'm interested in picking up a Chromecast, but I'm out of HDMI ports. Can anyone recommend an HDMI switcher? It can't do automatic switching, since that doesn't work well with always-on devices, and it needs to be compatible with a Harmony remote.

This Kinivo switch works with my Harmony. The LED's are a bit bright, though.

I'm interested in picking up a Chromecast, but I'm out of HDMI ports. Can anyone recommend an HDMI switcher? It can't do automatic switching, since that doesn't work well with always-on devices, and it needs to be compatible with a Harmony remote.

This Kinivo switch works with my Harmony. The LED's are a bit bright, though.

Thanks. I keep hoping that google fiber will just add native casting support for their music service to the fiber TV boxes, the way they already have for youtube and netflix. They will probably add it the day after I buy a chromecast and switcher.

I rarely use my Chromecast these days as my Xbox One does just about everything I need.. but wouldnt a Fire TV Stick be a better investment at this point?

It might be, but I'd be using the Chromecast primarily for music. I've already uploaded all of my music to Google Play, so it's a way to have both my personal collection and a music subscription contained in a single app that can be cast from my phone to my home theater with a single click, and no need to fire up my 360 to do it.

Google has released an Ethernet adapter for ChromeCast. It's a welcome addition to my setup, because while the Wi-Fi signal strength near my TV is sufficient for music and photos streaming, it's not good enough for HD video. The adapter utilizes the USB port on the ChromeCast to provide both power and the Ethernet-over-USB. The setup is completely straightforward plug-and-play.

While DYI USB OTG power adapter + USB Ethernet dongle solutions existed before and are documented by Google itself, this new product is just a cheaper, neater all-in-one solution.

I had no idea this was a thing! Thanks for the heads up. This will solve a problem I have with my WIFI signal causing noise in my powered stereo monitors on my PC whenever I use my chromecast for anything

Google has released an Ethernet adapter for ChromeCast. It's a welcome addition to my setup, because while the Wi-Fi signal strength near my TV is sufficient for music and photos streaming, it's not good enough for HD video. The adapter utilizes the USB port on the ChromeCast to provide both power and the Ethernet-over-USB. The setup is completely straightforward plug-and-play.

While DYI USB OTG power adapter + USB Ethernet dongle solutions existed before and are documented by Google itself, this new product is just a cheaper, neater all-in-one solution.

Thanks for that. Tho, not available in Canada. Weird.

LobsterMobster wrote:

You give me hope for the future in general, Manach.

BadKen wrote:

Never fear. There will be some big betrayal from within. Like Anduin starts worshipping Sargeras or something.

I got my Ethernet adapter today. It works as expected for the most part.

The one thing I'm noticing so far is that it takes notably longer to bump up to a higher resolution on YouTube videos than it ever did over WiFi. Like I got four minutes into a Giantbomb quicklook before it finally got to HD and then at one point it dropped back.

I'm not ready to complain yet. Maybe my Internet's just a bit crap today. We'll see after some more use.

So I'm debating grabbing a chromecast or a roku skick for travel. I hate getting stuck watching cable in a hotel, I know wifi isn't always reliable, but I'm willing to deal with stutters.

Anyone played with both? I like my Roku 3 a lot, so I am leaning toward the stick.

I love them both. Roku is great because of the remote, but casting to Chromecast is magical. It's a toss-up there.

For your situation though I would look into how well each works on hotel wifi. I have no first-hand experience, but I've read that you can now cast to a Chromecast without wifi. Rokus might not work, but I might be wrong.

Please let us know which you choose.

"I never should have taken purchasing advice from Gary Busey.
What the hell was I thinking?" - Paleocon